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Chairman of Finance Committee of Parliament, James Klutse Avedzi has said the appreciation of the Ghana cedis against the American dollar has been made possible in recent times because – “there is more supply now as compared to demand as such the price of the dollar will decrease now”.

He explained where the supply is emanating from - “We all know that Ghana is having a program with the fund [International Monetary Fund (IMF)] and as one of the measures the government is taking under this program is for the Bank of Ghana to release some dollars into the system to curb the fallen of our cedis. So in every week the Bank of Ghana releases 20 million dollars into the system”.

Experts have questioned the central bank to explain to Ghanaians where the dollar being injected into the economy is coming from – because, the probability that the cedi appreciation would not succeed is very high.

Speaking in an interview with Kwame Nkrumah Tikese on OKAY FM’s "Ade Aye Abia" morning show, the NDC MP for Ketu in the Volta Region however indicated that the rise of the cedi against some of the major foreign trading currencies cannot sustained. 

He pointed out that Bank of Ghana cannot continue to pump in dollars to tame the depreciation as it has done in the last few days.

“The Bank of Ghana can’t continue to be pumping in the $20 million they are pushing into the system every week.

“It cannot be sustained because Bank of Ghana doesn’t have dollars to be releasing on weekly bases, so that cannot be sustained...What the country needs to do is to improve commodity exports in order to attract some foreign exchange, that is the only way to sustain the rise of the Cedi,” he stated.

The Ghana cedi over the past weeks has appreciated against the dollar by some 22 percent, the biggest appreciation in recent times.

The Ghana cedi on Monday morning traded among some commercial banks at around 3 Ghana cedis 46 pesewas (3.46p). There are predictions it will drop to 2 Ghana cedis 70 pesewas (2.70p) by next month.

However, James Klutse Avedzi advised that the cedis appreciation can only be sustained when – “We export more goods that can earn the foreign currency for us which can enable Bank of Ghana to release it into the system. But ones we cannot export more goods, it cannot be sustainable”.

He also noted that the reduction of importation of foreign goods has also played a major factor in the cedis appreciation.

“Individuals are also releasing their kept dollars, that is also accounting for the appreciation,” he added.